The forest path leading home.
“…I don’t think I can handle this, it’s too uncomfortable.”
Elsie, being small, found it quite difficult to move the bulky pile of groceries.
Considering her physical limitations while living like this had become Elsie’s recent minor concern.
‘Things placed out of reach… or when I’m washing up…’
Unbeknownst to others, her struggles were considerable.
“I can carry it for you if it’s too hard.”
Thrud offered with a bright smile, extending her hand, but Elsie shook her head.
Thrud could probably lift a whole log, not just the groceries, but Elsie had her pride.
“It’s okay. I’ve got a good idea.”
Suddenly struck with an idea to make carrying the inconvenient load a little easier, Elsie set the groceries down and deployed her inventory.
Whirr-
There weren’t many items stored in the inventory space.
But each one possessed outstanding performance.
And among them, there was surely equipment that could solve the problem at hand.
Leaving Thrud, who was gazing at the black orb of the inventory with wonder, Elsie reached out her hand.
Clunk!
A heavy sensation in her grasp.
She pulled it out immediately.
“The Shield of Nullification, Brigða Skjǫldr.”
A large, circular shield emerged from the black space.
The dark blue shield, engraved with intricate runes, emanated an indescribable, special power.
Even Thrud, who didn’t know the shield’s history, could immediately recognize it as a masterpiece.
‘What is she planning to do?’
She watched Elsie’s actions with great interest.
Then, Elsie turned the ominous shield upside down on the ground and began piling the groceries on top, causing Thrud to furrow her brow.
Elsie was planning to use that extraordinary shield as a mere basket for carrying groceries!
“Elsie, what are you doing?”
“Hehe, look at this! If I turn the shield over and stack the grocery bags on it…”
Groceries were piled haphazardly onto the large shield.
To use such a shield for carrying groceries was, in many ways, a deplorable sight.
“Alright! Done-!”
Elsie, having neatly loaded the groceries onto the shield, smiled brightly, looking satisfied.
“It’s a good idea, but you still have to carry it, right? It’ll be heavier because of the shield, won’t it?”
“Hehe, I have a plan. Give me the groceries. The shield is spacious enough.”
The Shield of Nullification, piled high with food and utensils, was instantly transformed from a shield into a shopping basket.
“I thought of a function I want to test. If it works well, things will be easier from now on.”
Hearing the confidence in Elsie’s voice, Thrud’s golden eyes sparkled as she asked,
“Is there something more besides pulling the shield out of the black space?”
Thrud was intrigued by Elsie’s abilities, which seemed to have endless layers.
Frankly, watching Elsie’s eccentric behavior was more entertaining than pointing it out.
She subtly urged Elsie on.
“Okay, watch closely. I’m going to summon a summon now!”
“Ooh-”
Thrud watched Elsie with expectant eyes.
Elsie glanced back at Thrud, who was unnecessarily raising expectations, and then slowly closed her eyes.
A skill she had almost completely forgotten, one she had barely used even in the game: Jotunn Summon for Riding.
It was completely useless except for the fact that some mythical beings with high rarity could be summoned as mounts.
Therefore, even those who had acquired the skill were few and far between, but Elsie had it.
A useless skill that couldn’t be used in combat.
But in this world, without the limitations of the game?
‘It’s different! If I can summon a mount, there are many things I can do besides just riding it.’
Elsie turned to Thrud and nodded confidently.
The corners of Thrud’s lips twitched at her insignificant and cute appearance.
Taking a deep breath, she activated the skill.
**Mythic Grade Jotunn Summon: Hraesvelgr-**
_Kiiing-_
“What, what is that?”
Along with the small sound of the summoning skill being activated, a large amount of energy began to drain away.
In the game, the summoning skill had almost no cost.
Elsie was greatly flustered by the unexpected result and tried to cancel the skill.
“Ugh…! I, I can’t cancel it!”
Through several experiments, Elsie had learned that although her body was weak, her energy output was enormous, thanks to the power she had brought from the game.
However, the energy the summoning skill was drawing exceeded Elsie’s output.
“Uwaaaah!”
Elsie, who had been staggering like a baby deer, collapsed to the ground.
For a mere summoning skill to steal energy comparable to a Divine Beast Summon or a Hidden Skill.
Even worse, she couldn’t cancel it at will.
Drip-
“?!”
Then, at some point, the skill was suddenly canceled with a clunk.
Elsie, now realizing that the skill activation had stopped, was dumbfounded.
“W-What happened… It took so much energy and then failed to summon?”
Elsie, drained of strength, dropped her hand in dismay.
Her mind became complicated by the unusual change in the summoning skill, which she hadn’t even noticed.
“Did it fail?”
“Y-Yeah… I think so.”
It was a skill that had been practically abandoned in the game, so it wouldn’t have been a problem even if she couldn’t use it.
‘I was going to try using it for carrying luggage, but I was just curious… and it causes this kind of malfunction.’
The problem was, what was she going to do now that she had already loaded the luggage onto the shield?
Thinking that she had made a pathetic failure, Elsie got up.
“Hngh-!!!”
Thrud watched anxiously as Elsie, her legs trembling as if she had just been born, struggled to her feet.
“…I’ll carry the luggage. I can even support you if you want…”
Thrud picked up the shield with one hand, as if serving, and extended her other hand.
Elsie, ashamed of her state, blushed and refused.
“I’m fine, it’s just that…! It’s not like I can’t even walk just because I lost a little strength! Ugh-”
“Stubborn…”
“Hmph-”
Elsie glared at Thrud and opened her inventory again.
“The Staff of Nullification, Gambanteinn!”
The Staff of Nullification, Gambanteinn, entwined with magic-infused ash wood, appeared in Elsie’s hand.
The blue gem embedded at the end of the staff emitted a faint light.
“She keeps pulling things out.”
Thrud muttered in disbelief as Elsie took out another extraordinary item.
What was she planning to do this time?
Elsie looked up at Thrud and grinned.
The Staff of Nullification, Gambanteinn, was a useful auxiliary weapon for deflecting or nullifying offensive magic.
At least, that’s how it was used in the Aesir Saga.
Thud-
Thrud, looking down at Elsie with a slightly pitiful expression, sighed.
“I wondered what she was going to do with the staff…”
Thump-
Elsie, using the staff as support, took one shaky step at a time.
She looked like a defeated soldier.
“I, I lost too much energy when I tried to summon…”
“That’s why I said I’d support you. You stubborn thing.”
“I can’t… my pride won’t allow me to accept any more help…”
“You really don’t listen… Didn’t I tell you not to feel burdened by things like this?”
Laughing and chatting as they walked,
The sun was slowly setting.
The shadows of Elsie and Thrud stretched long between the forest path gradually tinged with the colors of the sunset.
A dark trace following those shadows briefly appeared and then disappeared into the trees.
“I’ve found them.”
A hoarse voice, muffled by a mask, broke the silence of the forest and spread out.
As if in response to the masked man’s voice, a man in a grayish-white robe suddenly appeared on a large tree branch.
“Are you sure?”
“Blue eyes and silver hair, indicating direct lineage of the family. There is no mistake.”
At the masked man’s confirmation, the man stroked his beard and muttered, looking troubled.
“To think she was still alive… But how? Didn’t she drink the poison?”
“I cannot be certain, but- she seemed to be in poor condition, relying on a staff. Her complexion was also pale, like that of a sick person.”
“I see… Well, the brother she trusts and follows sent it, so he must have written that it was safe… The fool probably drank it without suspicion.”
The man in the grayish-white robe sneered.
“But it’s still hard to believe… How could she survive if she swallowed that vile dragon’s poison?”
If Elsie had really swallowed the poison, there were only two possibilities.
Either she had miraculously survived,
Or the poison she had received was faulty.
“In any case, I must report to Madam immediately.”
“What should I do?”
“Take two subordinates and continue to monitor them.”
It would be troublesome if there were any disruptions to the plan that had already been set in motion.
The moment he reported Elsie’s survival, Madam would unleash a furious tirade, unable to contain her anger.
He already felt his ears ringing.
‘If they had consulted and proceeded with the plan from the beginning, it could have been handled more smoothly…’
The current head of the family had proceeded too hastily.
Thanks to that, the cleanup had become troublesome.
“It would have been easier if she had died when the carriage was attacked… That damn prosecutor…”
He ground his teeth, recalling how he belatedly learned of the Lady’s reckless and haphazard plan, and hurriedly bought off the bandits.
It was all well and good to ambush Elsie’s carriage immediately after she was banished to Midgard.
However, an unforeseen interference led to failure.
A black-haired swordsman who swept away the bandits in an instant and vanished without a trace.
If he were to meet him again, he would make him pay the price for making things troublesome.
“Have preparations ready so we can deal with it at any time. Orders may be issued immediately upon report.”
“Yes.”
“She’s a girl with no power, crippled by poison. Dispose of her as soon as the signal is given.”
“What about the student who is with her?”
“Get rid of him too. At best, he’s just a student from an academy in Midgard…”
The man paused for a moment, stroked his beard, and smiled cruelly.
“Even if they are the elites of a world filled with mongrels, they are still just mongrels. Hrokk, they won’t be a match for you.”
The masked man called Hrokk flashed his eyes and grinned cruelly.
Creak!
Elsie opened the front door, which screamed even more loudly than usual today, and was greeted by a scene that now felt a little like home.
“Hngh! I finally arrived!”
Elsie threw down the Gambanteinn, which had fulfilled its role, and jumped onto the sofa.
Thrud, who was staring at the dangling door, which had no lock, as if it were her enemy, glanced around the house and muttered.
“Looking at it again, it’s even worse than I remember…”
It was almost unchanged from the day she first stormed in to bring Elsie.
A faint change, perhaps a little cleaner than before.
“It’s paradise…”
Elsie, who was rolling around with her energy completely drained, looked utterly happy.
It was refreshing to see Elsie so disheveled at home, but there were still one or two things to point out.
“Elsie, your skirt is all flipped over. Should I spank your bottom?”
“D-don’t do it-!”
Elsie, whose face had been relaxed, instantly contorted her expression and screamed, covering her bottom.
Truly an astonishing speed of facial change.
“Are you guys always looking for opportunities like that?”
Not to mention Thrud, who made physical contact almost as a matter of routine.
Today, she had broken out in a cold sweat from Han Doyun’s unexpected surprise harassment.
It was a bit much, so she properly avenged herself by turning Han Doyun into a sword, but it was still a chilling experience to recall.
Elsie, unconsciously tensing up at the memory of the blatant touch, wiggled her toes and let out a long sigh.
“Haa…”
“You guys? What do you mean?”
Thrud, who had not missed Elsie’s fleeting grumble, asked with a feeling of her blood running cold.
Besides herself, there was some scoundrel looking for an opportunity to make physical contact with Elsie?
That couldn’t be.
‘I’ve been with Elsie all day… the only guy who could be…’
There was someone who could be.
“You and Han Doyun! Seriously, even if Han Doyun wasn’t in his right mind, he still did it so suddenly… Th, Thrud?”
Thrud’s eyes changed like empty pupils sucking in light, her expression frozen like a doll.
Elsie flinched at Thrud’s appearance, which seemed to be seriously angry.
“Wh, what’s wrong? O, okay! I’ll close my skirt and be proper, so…”
“Han Doyun…”
“Wh, why suddenly? Why him-”
“I just thought he was a perverted bastard, but he laid his hands on Elsie?”
“No, I don’t think that’s what it was-”
“He’s dead-!”
“That’s not it!”